What has the last year and a half of pandemic life meant for you? For me it’s been all about adjusting to the see-saw of lockdown life with the family at home full time and back to school and office when restrictions levels ease up. There is no new normal. It’s about being fluid and riding the Covid waves for about another 2 years at least in my opinion.
With everyone working from home eating together takes centre-stage. This also means more pressure around meal planning. Packing a lunch box and sending them off is so much easier. Which is why convenience meals are such a lifesaver. It’s so great to whip out something from the freezer pop it into the oven and have a meal on the plate in minutes.
But finding great tasting frozen meals that are also great quality is not the norm. Especially for my Indian tastebuds. Most frozen options lack flavour and spice. They simply don’t compare to homemade. So I typically cook all my own meals rather than offend my snobbish palate.
But I may have just hit paydirt. PizzaNews is a Johannesburg based pizza brand. They started as a takeaway pizzeria in Mayfair 20 years ago. They have taken what they know and do well, reinvented it, froze it, packaged it and made serving meals in a hurry so much easier.
I was invited to try a range of their products. From pizzas, both deep-dish and thin base to pastas, bakes and casseroles. Here’s what we thought of all of them as a family.
Pizza
We first tried the deep-dish with their Signature Pan Crust, which is crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The pizzas are individually sealed in plastic inside the box. You bake it from frozen for about 30 minutes and true to form the base was perfect. We enjoyed the Sweet Chilli Chicken and the Margherita more than the Meat Lovers, which had pepperoni, Russians etc, but was a bit bland. The Sweet chilli was tasty and had a nice kick and the Margherita was generously loaded with cheese, garlic and herbs. These were about the size of a dinner plate, but because they were deep dish, they were quite filling. But if hungry, one per person would be about right. At R55 each these are very well priced.
The standard base pizza is slightly bigger in size. I like that their presentation is very close to what you see on the box. The one thing you need to be careful of is overheating. And I learnt this the hard way. It’s easily remedied though if you don’t think you know better than the instructions. Just stick to the time on the box… Otherwise you will end up with rubbery cheese and a dry pizza. Want something to serve alongside a soup dinner or a bowl of chillie con carne? The focaccia is perfect and comes 2 in a box.
Take ‘n Bake Range
For me this range was a surprise. We tried Chicken Lasagne, Vegetarian Lasagne, a Butter Chicken Casserole and Spaghetti Bolognese. Of these the Vegetarian Lasagne and the Casserole were my favourites. I had low expectations from a presentation point of view because I figured once you dished them from the foil containers they would basically be a runny mess on the plate. However, I unboxed, removed them from their sealed plastic and baked it in their foil containers. I cut the portion in half and lifted it out with a spatula and it retained it’s shape quite well. So plating this was very presentable.
The Butter chicken casserole has a spicy and flavourful layer of Butter Chicken curry topped with mashed potato and a layer of savoury rice atop that. While that is carbs on top of carbs, the textures of this dish worked so well together I will definitely stock my freezer with it. The vegetarian lasagne was hot and spicy, loved it. The Chicken Lasagne was a bit plain, and the Spaghetti Bolognaise, while it was well flavoured was a little too sweet. I felt it needed some heat in the form of green chilli to offset the sweetness.
Mini Pizzas
These are super convenient as school lunchbox fillers or a light lunch. I found them a bit big to serve as a savoury. They come in boxes of 6 for pizzas or 8 for the mini focaccias.
I loved that these products are locally made, halaal certified and preservative-free. They were easy to prep, tasted wholesome and homemade and saved me a whole lot of time.
They are available across South Africa at various outlets which you can find here. Even Pick n Pay in Lakefield Benoni stocks the range. In Cape Town, you can find them at Springroll Delicacies and Wembley Meat Market in the Southern Suburbs and Giant Cash & Carry Cape Gate.
Compared to the average takeout pizza I found these to be more affordable and more convenient than running out for takeouts or waiting for UberEats to deliver. The Take ‘n Bake range is my favourite and will definitely find a place in my freezer.
Find them online at www.pizzanews.co.za
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